HOT NEWS:
Buddy Holly Anniversary
Celebrity Charity Concert
Liverpool Royal Philharmonic Hall
Thursday 20 March
The Quarrymen were greatly honoured to have been invited to play on the Buddy Holly Anniversary Charity Concert in aid of concert at the Royal Philharmonic on Thursday 20 March. This takes place 50 years to the day from the first appearance in Liverpool of the man who inspired so many Liverpool musicians, especially of course the Quarrymen! John Lennon himself was there at the original concert with Quarrymen manager Nige Walley, four rows back on the right as you face the stage.
We were asked to play “That’ll be the day”, which was of course one of the two tracks recorded by the Quarrymen at the famous Percy Phillips recording session in 1958 with the lineup comprising John, Paul, George, Colin Hanton and John Duff Lowe The other side of the recording was “In Spite of all the Danger”. The Quarrymen were joined on stage by the legendary Liverpool bass player, Owen Clayton, who was a member of the audience at the actual concert fifty years ago, as also was Geoff Rhind who took hte famous photo of Lennon and the Quarrymen in 1957. Our lead singer, Len Garry, was unfortunately taken ill with the ‘flu and could not be present, so Rod Davis had to sing lead and play the guitar solo as well! However, his job was made much easier by the driving rhythm provided by Colin and Owen, even if Colin was about 50 yards away on the drums!
We got to meet Buddy Holly’s guitarist. Tommy Allsupp who performed with the fantastic American Buddy impersonator Johnny Rogers.
Other Merseyside acts on the fabulous bill included China Crisis, Phil Jones, Ian McNabb, Pete Wylie, Howie Casey, The Merseybeats, The Merseysippi, Karl Terry, The Fourmost and loads more!
- Click here for some photos
- PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCE BEYOND OUR CONTROL OUR 28 March (Fri) at the Swallow Hilltop Hotel, Carlisle HAS BEEN CANCELLED. Our sincere apologies go to those who were hoping to attend.
- Our concert in Germany on Sun 11 May in Dahme on the Baltic coast east of Hamburg is however ON!!!!
- 9 October 2007: Quarrymen Tour of USA??
Dahme, Germany
Sun 11 May
The Quarrymen have been invited to play on a Open-Air concert in the seaside town of Dahme on the Baltic in the north of Germany, just north of Lubeck. We have no more details yet so please watch this space!
Quarrymen American Tour??
The Antiques Roadshow????
Our man in the USA, Thom Wolke, is currently working on a two-week tour of the USA for the Quarrymen, starting in New York on Thursday October 9, which of course is John’s birthday. This is very much in the early planning stage at the moment but we are hoping to take in Chicago, Nashville and Washington areas as well as New York. So if anyone has any bright ideas of venues who might be interested, we’d be very grateful if you’d please email us on the link below and we’ll pass your information on to Thom.
On this page.........
Quarrymen on TV
Last July BBC Newsnight produced a short feature on the Quarrymen (which is on Youtube if you missed it!) and also on the Inside Out programme from Manchester in September ‘07 and February of this year. The BBC Manchester Inside Out team are producing a 55 minute video about the Quarrymen which is due to be shown later this year.
During the filming, which has taken place over the previous twelve months, we have had the pleasure of meeting many old friends including former Quarrymen manager Nige Walley and several people who appear on the famous Geoff Rhind photo of John and the Quarrymen at St Peter’s. We have to say how much we are looking forward to seeing the finished film!
Left:
With Sheila Stewart and Eileen Thomas who were at the St Peter’s Garden Fete in 1957. Eileen appears on the famous photo.
Right:
With Inside Out presenter
Andy Johnson at BBC Radio
Merseyside.
Left:
Andy gets some tips on Tea-chest bass playing from Len.
Right:
With our guest bass player,
Owen Clayton, sporting his Quarry Bank tie!
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John Lennon’s
Original Quarrymen